A scalable, 32-core System on Chip (SoC) design, with two threads per core

Up to 16 DDR4 DIMMs on 8 memory channels and up to 2TB of memory capacity

Support for up to 32 DIMMs of DDR4 on 16 memory channels, delivering up to 4TB of total memory capacity in a 2-socket server

Complete SoC with fully integrated IO supporting 128 lanes of PCIe 3

Cache structure for high-performance, energy-efficient compute

Infinity Fabric coherent interconnect for Naples CPUs in a 2-socket system

Dedicated security hardware

It still does, underneath the EYPC brand, but we know more about its performance now.

At the 2017 AMD Financial Analyst Day, a single EPYC processor was shown beating a Xeon E5-2699A v4 with 45 per cent more cores1, 60 per cent more IO capacity2, and 122 per cent more memory bandwidth3.

We don't know how this translates into application speed improvements.

Well, tough diddly, AMD, as Intel has its Xeon SP coming and so these comparisons will have to be rerun against the Xeon SP Bronze and Silver CPUs. The results should be most interesting to read.

We now know the high-end Platinum Xeon SP runs SAP HANA 1.6x faster than a Xeon E7-8890 v4. If – big if – the other Xeon SPs have similar performance boosts over other Xeon E7s and E5s then AMD might have a marketing problem on its hands. AMD must be hoping that they don't.

IDC SVP Matthew Eastwood gave out a neat canned quote: "Today's single-socket server offerings push buyers toward purchasing a more expensive two-socket server just to get the memory bandwidth and IO they need to support the compute performance of the cores... EPYC [offers] a single-processor solution that delivers the right-sized number of high-performance cores, memory, and IO for today's workloads."

The first EPYC-based servers will launch in June, with AMD promising widespread support from OEMs and channel partners. Dropbox is evaluating using EYPC CPUs. ®